IRS Waives Penalties for Some Overseas Accounts

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 10:16 PM

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHERTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON | The Internal Revenue Service is offering to waive steep penalties for Americans living abroad who haven't been paying their U.S. taxes. But there is a catch: You have to be able to show that you didn't evade U.S. taxes on purpose. American citizens living abroad are required to file U.S. tax returns, even if they keep all their money overseas. Similarly, U.S. citizens living in the United States are required to tell the IRS about any accounts they have in foreign banks. The penalties for not reporting these accounts are stiff. If there is more than $10,000 in an unreported account, the IRS can impose penalties of 100,000 — more if the accounts are really big. The IRS announced a program Wednesday that would largely waive these penalties if taxpayers come forward and show that they didn't hide the money on purpose.

NO WHITE HOUSE-LERNER EMAILS FOUNDWASHINGTON | The White House said it has found no emails between anyone in the executive office of the president and a top Internal Revenue Service official who has been connected to the improper scrutiny of political groups. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House searched for all communications between the former IRS official, Lois Lerner, and executive office personnel. Carney said, quote: "We found zero emails."